 |
| Joe Rogan signals America's intellectual downward spiral. |
A recent vote in Canada just demonstrated how progressive a country can be when government officials aren't caught in a strange hold by so-called religiously moral figures and false precepts.
From The Hill:
Canada’s House of Commons on Wednesday voted unanimously to outlaw LGBTQ+ conversion therapy, a rare example of harmony in a Parliament often fraught with discord. The bill, first proposed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government in March of last year, will now go to the upper Senate chamber for approval. An earlier version of the bill died after the government prorogued Parliament last August and was reintroduced the following October.“There are clearly people in the Conservative caucus who exercised a great deal of leadership on the issue, and I thank them,” Canada’s Liberal justice minister, David Lametti, told reporters Wednesday. “This is what we can do when parliament works together.” "We said we wanted people to be on the right side of history on this issue. No one can consent to torture," Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault, one of eight openly queer, trans, and Two-Spirit candidates elected to Parliament this year, told reporters Wednesday.
The governing Liberals had made repeated attempts to pass legislation banning the practice, which aims to change individuals’ sexual orientation or gender identity, and has been deemed harmful by health experts globally. The Liberals first introduced the bill in March 2020, but it died after the government prorogued parliament. Trudeau’s party reintroduced the bill again but it died when parliament dissolved ahead of the September federal election.The Conservative leader, Erin O’Toole, has become an outspoken proponent of LGBTQ rights since taking control of the party. By voting to fast-track the bill, lawmakers avoid having to record their vote. Previously, 62 Conservatives voted against the motion in June. The bill will now go to the senate for a separate vote before it becomes law.A recent UN report found that conversion practices are performed in at least 68 countries, although experts say some version of conversion practice is still found in all nations. Aversion therapy, where a person is subjected to a “negative, painful or otherwise distressing sensation”– including electric shocks – to create a negative association, has been used in many countries.The vote puts Canada one step closer to joining a small number of nations – Brazil, Ecuador, Germany and Malta – that have outright banned the practice.
 |
| The conservative evangelicals who supported Donald Trump are a sad bunch. |
The irony of this particular Wednesday is incredibly stark.
Conservative evangelicals finally got a taste of the moment they have been wanting and anticipating for decades - a Supreme Court which may actually overturn Roe v Wade. A court which embraces their view of the so-called sanctity of life - however hypocritical - is something they have been pining for with all of their planning, plotting, and basic maneuvering. It's possibly the same court which could also give the LGBTQ community and our rights - particularly the one to marry - fresh hell after it finishes carving up a woman's right to an abortion.
And they owe it to their canny vigilance and cynical support of Donald Trump. By overlooking his basic faults, making excuses for his tendency to lie, and practically anointing him as a "baby Christian," conservative evangelicals are now in the catbird seat overlooking a moment in history where they may actually get what they want.
And it's on this same day that we learn something else equally nauseating about Donald Trump, the man which they owe their success to. According to his former aide Mark Meadows, Trump was COVID positive three days before his first debate with now President Joe Biden. And this was a day before an event he held with Gold Star military families whom he later blamed for giving him COVID.
So on top of everything else people have reason to despise Trump for, we can possibly mark him as a personal spreader of COVID. And this doesn't begin to account for how his sad governance indirectly caused the pandemic to wreak deadly havoc across the country.
Taking all that into account, you would think I am going to weave a sad narrative about how conservative evangelicals supposedly sold their souls for what looks like a moment of victory. You probably think that I am going to make literary comparison of people like Franklin Graham and groups like the Family Research Council to the legendary Faust, who sold his sold to the devil to gain his heart's desire.
But I'm not going to.
For the comparison to make sense, a soul must first be involved. The pain that comes from attaining your heart's desire at the cost of your innocence must be involved. And the sad realization that what you gained in your deal with the devil isn't worth what you gave up must be acknowledged.
But none of this internal trauma is going to happen with conservative evangelicals. How can it when they obviously didn't have a soul to begin with.
The truth is that they don't give a damn. All they care about is what Donald Trump has done for them. Because of him, they now have a conservative majority on the court and this majority is very close to overturning Roe v Wade. At least for now.
Everything else - the lives lost to COVID, the hypocrisy, the lies, the awful governance - is simply collateral damage to be explained away. Or worse yet, ignored.
 |
| Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg |
 |
| FRC president Tony Perkins |
In its latest fundraising, anti-LGBTQ hate group the Family Research Council and its President Tony Perkins commits a serious sin of omission. The organization has chosen to take up the cause of controversial North Carolina Lt Governor Mark Robinson by making him sound like a strong steadfast Christian battling the forces of evil (i.e. LGBTQ people) trying to "groom" (I believe that's the popular accusatory word these days) children into our supposed "lifestyle."
In reality, Robinson is a raging loudmouth hypocrite. whose words belie any attempt to make him look like a latter-day Joan of Arc. But in its email, FRC chose not include Robinson's various comments. Instead, the group utilized glowing adjectives to describe him. Well I decided to adjust FRC's email just a little by including various comments Robinson has made as well as certain other facts the group chose to omit or alter.
Let's begin:
As you well know, the far Left has been on a quest to police and censor parents from having a voice in their own children's education.The claim that "the far Left has been on a quest to police and censor parents" is a lie. There have been complaints that school board officials have been threatened by certain parents and other attendees of meetings. Because of this, the Justice Department had been asked to investigate.
Mark Robinson - “We had them kind of folks back in the day/ Back when I was a kid, my momma used to tell me about them. She’d say, ‘When y’all go down to the playground, if y’all see anybody hanging around in a raincoat and you don’t see no pants hanging under his raincoat, y’all get y’all stuff and come on home because that’s what we call a pervert.'”
“There is somebody somewhere right now on the internet grooming somebody’s child to put their hands on them,” Robinson warned. “You ain’t got no reason to be teaching these children those kinds of concepts unless you got—like the old folks used to say—some ideas about putting your hands on them.”
Comparing LGBTQ people to pedophiles? So much for truth, Part 1
Robinson actually said Christians (who believe has he does, of course) should take over public schools because he felt that learning about LGBTQ people and such is child abuse:
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson says Christians must take control of public schools because children are being abused by being taught "filth": "There's no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth." pic.twitter.com/aXjCPFKTs0
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) October 6, 2021
And (surprise! surprise!) The book Gender Queer is not about sexual fantasies. So much for truth, Part 2.
Right Wing Watch released a few recordings of Robinson speaking. One was in August at the Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh, NC. During that speech, he called trans rights "demonic" and "full of anti-Christ spirit." FRC omitted that item in its fundraising letter. The organization also omitted the fact that the Upper Room Church of Christ is run by Patrick Wooden, "a vehemently anti-gay right-wing pastor who once claimed that gay men have to wear diapers because they routinely insert cellphones, baseball bats, and animals into their anuses."
Someone should ask FRC and Tony Perkins which of these comments do they consider as truths.
Really? Here is an example of Robinson's 'boldness' signified by a few more comments from him.October 29 - North Carolina’s Christian nationalist Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who recently announced that he’s “about 95 percent sure” that he will be running for governor in 2024, spoke at a Stand Up For America rally in Raleigh Friday morning, where he thundered that “the Christian patriots of this nation will own this nation and rule this nation.”. . . “Tell our enemies on the other side of the aisle that will drag this nation down into a socialist hellhole that you will only do it as you run past me laying on the ground, choking on my own blood because I will not give up this nation to you!” Robinson bellowed. “It is not yours. You did not build it, you did not defend it, and you will not own it. We will. The Christian patriots of this nation will own this nation and rule this nation and help freedom survive for future generations.”Oct 7 -“To every animal, God has given the ability to defend yourself,” Robinson said. “God didn’t even leave the garden slug out. Garden slugs have little enzymes in it that make it unappealing for folks to eat. Certainly we wouldn’t want to eat them. But even some animals look at garden slugs and find them unappealing because there’s an enzyme in them that gives off something that drives creatures away. And there’s even an inside enzyme in some of them that if creatures eat them, they automatically spit them out.”“God gave the garden slug a way to defend itself,” he continued. “Now, if God gave the garden slug a way to defend themselves, what makes you think he didn’t give man, who he created in his own image, a way to defend himself? Those AR-15s and Glock 9mms and .45 calibers; where do you think they came from? Who do you think inspired them? God knew the world he was putting us into, so he formed in our mind the ability for us to be able to defend ourselves from anybody who may threaten us.”
Barring anything interesting happening, this will be my last post before the Thanksgiving holidays. I will begin posting again either Sunday or Monday. Enjoy this holiday with family - all of your family whether related or not. Love each other and yourselves this holiday. Because you are worthy of love.
No doubt if I called Ellen Troxclair a wannabe in the spirit of Lauren Boebert or Marjorie Taylor Greene, she would take it as a compliment.
It's not.
Troxclair is merely the latest person whose lack of intellect and general kindness are equally matched by their ignorance and mania. And like the two aforementioned, she is seeking high office. More specifically she is running for state office in Texas for "freedom," "the Constitution" and against "socialism."
That should give you a good indication as to what direction she is coming from. But just in case you need further information, check out this tweet she sent out this weekend:
You can no longer walk though the Christmas children’s section of a bookstore with your kids without being bombarded with inappropriate content -featured by staff who want to “make people” read it. Why does there have to be a leftist agenda to EVERYTHING everywhere all the time? pic.twitter.com/zUjwUy1ZOI
— Ellen Troxclair 🇺🇸 (@EllenTroxclair) November 21, 2021
And yes, even I participated.
 |
| Mario Murillo |
 |
| Mark Robinson |
It would appear that North Carolina Lt. Gov Mark Robinson is trying to get to the governor's mansion on the backs of LGBTQ people. He has been basking in the backlash of homophobic comments he made about us in the past such as when he claimed that we want to 'recruit' children by supposedly forcing pornographic material on them in school libraries or also calling us called us filth and demonic.
And of course like so many other folks spewing that mess, he claims that his religious beliefs are leading him to say these things. He claims that he is saying these things with love in his heart for LGBTQ people The thing is when one keeps spouting hatred like Robinson does, the religious beliefs excuse runs a bit thin. Still, he will probably to continue to hide behind his religious beliefs for these new comments:
Robinson, a Republican who is expected to run for governor in 2024, questioned the “purpose” of being gay; said heterosexual couples are “superior” to gay couples; and that he didn’t want to explain to his grandchildren why two men are kissing if they see that on television.
Robinson made the remarks Sunday, Nov. 14, at Berean Baptist Church in Winston-Salem. They’re the latest statements he has made against gay, lesbian and transgender people, leading some state Democrats to call for his resignation. The White House previously called his remarks “repugnant” and said they spread hate.
In Winston-Salem, Robinson compared being gay to “what the cows leave behind” as well as maggots and flies, who he said all serve a purpose in God’s creation. “If homosexuality is of God, what purpose does it serve? What does it make? What does it create? It creates nothing,” Robinson said.
 |
| Hopefully Barronelle Stutzman has used up her 15 minutes of fame as a 'Christian victim.' |
On Thursday, the LGBTQ community received a good bit of news that a religious right tactic intended to enshrine homophobic discrimination as law suffered another setback.
From NBC News:
A settlement was reached Thursday in the nearly decade-old case of a Christian flower shop owner in Washington state who refused to provide a same-sex couple flowers for their wedding despite the state's anti-discrimination laws. The U.S. Supreme Court left intact the state court rulings against Barronelle Stutzman, the owner of Arlene’s Flowers in Richland, in July. Shortly afterward, Stutzman petitioned for a rehearing. Stutzman withdrew her petition Thursday and agreed to pay a settlement of $5,000 to the couple, Robert Ingersoll and Curt Freed.. . . The case dates to 2013, when Stutzman refused to provide flowers for the couple's wedding. She said it would violate her Southern Baptist beliefs and her “relationship with Jesus Christ.” Using an argument similar to that of Colorado baker Jack Phillips in the hot-button 2018 Supreme Court case Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, Stutzman argued that her floral arrangements are works of art and that having to create them for same-sex weddings would trample on her freedom of expression.A lower court ruled in 2015 that Stutzman broke a Washington law that bars businesses from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation. The state Supreme Court ruled in favor of the couple in 2017 and then again in 2019, finding that selling flowers for a wedding “does not inherently express a message about that wedding.”
For the second day, there are reports of a backlash to this nonsense about banning books in school libraries. And today's report is better than yesterday's.
According to The Daily Beast:
Students are clapping back after a book about sexual orientation and gender identity sparked a protest at a Chicago-area high school board meeting Monday night. Conservatives lined up to demand that Gender Queer—a coming-of-age book about gender identity—be pulled from the library at Downers Grove District 99 High School, where only two copies are reportedly accessible for a student population of nearly 5,000.However, students called BS on complaints that the book peddles pornography and sexually explicit content. Instead, they turned the tables on what they said were attacks on homosexuality and free speech. Nearly 200 people attended the school board meeting in Downers Grove that quickly erupted into a book boycott fight, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Those opposed to the book held signs and banners expressing their disgust, claiming that the book exposed children to homoeroticism and pornography.
Lauren Pierret, a 17-year-old senior at Downers Grove North, said she didn’t know “Gender Queer” existed until last week. “This isn’t being forced upon your kids, but it gives kids who would be interested in this story a choice to read it,” she said.Pierret also questioned why other books that feature sex scenes such as “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Angela’s Ashes” were available in the library but not facing the same criticism. “Let’s not present getting rid of ‘Gender Queer’ as censoring our children from sex,” she told the school board. “It’s homophobia.”Josiah Poynter, an 18-year-old senior at Downers North, said he understands “this novel has scenes in it that are mature and sexual to say the least, [but] it’s not like we haven’t been given books with sex in them before. “Inclusion matters to young people,” he told the school board. “This is why we must have this book in our school’s library. Inclusion brings an opportunity to grow in a safe environment. It brings comfort to people who feel unsolved and cast out.”
All of this nonsense about banning supposedly sexually explicit books from school libraries was bound to create a backlash sooner or later. And when it happened, it was delicious.
According to the Associated Press:
A Virginia school board rescinded a directive for staff to pull books with “sexually explicit” books from libraries early Tuesday after hours of passionate public comment. The Spotsylvania County school board voted 5-2 to reverse the order amid public backlash, but some board members said they’ll continue to take a stance against the inclusion of what they view as offensive material in school library books, The Free Lance-Star reported. Board members Rabih Abuismail and Kirk Twigg, who spoke of burning books at last week's meeting, did not support the reversal.
“[Your behavior] is the most egregious example of unprofessionalism I have ever witnessed,” one parent said, according to Adele Uphaus-Conner, a reporter for the Free Lance-Star. “The only course of action I see fit for you is a formal public apology to all the librarians in this county & for you to submit your resignation from the school board.”“You have labeled books you have no knowledge of and placed shame upon them,” said a district librarian. “You have no right to judge anyone or what they read.”. . . “If you are scared of a community you are supposed to represent, this is not the job for you,” said another student.
 |
| Moms for Liberty caused controversy in Tenn earlier this year by lying about a same-sex kiss on a float. |
Whenever I hear anyone play the black community vs. LGBTQ community angle, I get depressed on so many levels. As a gay black man, I feel like I'm being pulled and dissected. I feel as if no one cares about me as a person because they see me as a commodity to their struggle.
And then there is the fact that often times, both communities have the same enemies. Take the group Moms for Liberty, for example. That's a group which earlier this year caused a ruckus in Tennessee by falsely portraying an innocent kiss between a same-sex students into a lurid grope.
The kiss was a "blink and you'll miss it" peck, but thanks to the lies put out by Moms for Liberty, the incident was blown up into a huge, unnecessary controversy punctuated by a bunch of ignorant folks corralling a school board meeting with nonsense about kids "French kissing" and "groping" each other.
And surprise, surprise, Moms for Liberty - which is actually not a group of concerned parents, but astroturfed GOP operatives who, according to Media Matters:
. . . strategically harassing school board members, teachers, and administrators across the country, is deeply tied to anti-civil rights advocacy. Beyond opposing education about the history of racism in America, the organization also recommends reading an American history book by a far-right conspiracy theorist that is sympathetic to slave owners, and the co-founder of the organization actively opposed desegregation efforts while formerly serving on her school board. The organization’s staunch opposition to teaching “critical race theory” (CRT) perfectly fits in with its connection to anti-civil rights advocacy. CRT is actually a body of specific academic and legal scholarship, but this group and others have self-servingly (and incorrectly) rewritten the definition to essentially encompass any discussion of race or oppression.
Moms for Liberty recommends The Making of America by W. Cleon Skousen as a “helpful” text “when discussing the founding documents” of the United States . . . Skousen's book is also sympathetic to slave owners, calling them “the worst victims” and writing that “in some ways, the economic system of slavery chained the slave owners almost as much as the slaves.” Skousen himself was a supporter of the John Birch Society, an anti-civil rights organization that claimed the “African-American freedom movement was being manipulated from Moscow with the goal of creating a ‘Soviet Negro Republic’ in the Southern United States.”
 |
| SC Gov Henry McMaster |
